Georgia Elects New President, but Real Power Will Rest With Next Premier

In Tbilisi, Georgia's capital, supporters of Giorgi Margvelashvili reacted to exit polls showing the candidate with a big lead.Credit
Justyna Mielnikiewicz for The New York Times

TBILISI, Georgia — Georgian voters chose a new president on Sunday, but with billionaire Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili planning to step down shortly in favor of an unnamed successor, it remained unclear who would hold the prime minister’s post, now the most powerful political office in the country.

In balloting to replace President Mikheil Saakashvili, who catapulted to fame as leader of the peaceful Rose Revolution in 2003, Mr. Ivanishvili’s handpicked candidate, Giorgi Margvelashvili, a former deputy prime minister and education minister, was headed to a decisive victory, according to surveys of voters leaving the polls commissioned by the country’s two main television stations.

“We have shown to the world that we can elect leadership in a free way,” Mr. Margvelashvili told exuberant supporters waving blue and yellow flags at a victory celebration outside the headquarters of Mr. Ivanishvili’s party Georgia Dream. Calling Mr. Ivanishvili “my friend forever,” he said, “I and the team who helped me win are ready to serve the people.”

The larger question focused on who Mr. Ivanishvili might name as his successor, given his plan to leave office after just one year and instead seek to influence the country’s future as a private citizen, albeit one who commands a personal fortune of more than $5 billion — equal to roughly one-third of the entire country’s annual economic output.

Under constitutional changes that take effect with the inauguration of the new president, the prime minister, who is chosen by Parliament, becomes the head of the government with full executive authority over domestic and foreign policy. The president remains head of state and commander in chief, but cannot introduce legislation or propose the state budget.

Mr. Ivanishvili tapped his fortune to make a forceful entry into politics last year, creating Georgian Dream, an alliance of minor opposition parties, to compete in parliamentary elections with the main goal of dislodging Mr. Saakashvili. He pulled off an upset victory prompted partly by the disclosure of videos showing abuse of prison inmates.

Mr. Saakashvili was widely acclaimed abroad as a leading champion of democracy in the ex-Soviet Union, winning numerous fans, including Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, with his gregarious personality. But he was increasingly unpopular at home, accused of allowing human rights violations by overly aggressive security services in a nation that the West has cultivated as a bulwark of democracy in the post-Soviet space.

The loss in the parliamentary elections by his party, United National Movement, left Mr. Saakashvili to serve his final year in office in the awkward role of an opposition figure. Still, his decision to accept the results and to respect a constitutional limit of two terms in office made for a peaceful, democratic transfer of power, a rarity in the ex-Soviet Union.

United National Movement’s presidential candidate, the leader of its minority faction in Parliament, David Bakradze, finished second in Sunday’s balloting, according to the exit polls. He was followed by Nino Burjanadze, a former speaker of Parliament.

Photo

Surrounded by members of the news media, Mr. Margvelashvili embraced his daughter after voting at a Tbilisi polling station.Credit
Justyna Mielnikiewicz for The New York Times

In interviews on Sunday, many voters said that they were content to cast their vote for Mr. Margvelashvili, who they said appeared to be a well-intentioned public official without the outsized personality of Mr. Saakashvili or Mr. Ivanishvili.

“He is a normal person,” said Bondo Pankvelashvili, 75, a retired driver, outside polling station 19 in the Vera neighborhood of Tbilisi, the capital. “This is a problem with society. They are looking for a messiah and waiting for him to do something. Until we have a strong civil society, nothing will change. This is what we got from Soviet times.”

Nana Gamcemlidze, 51, an elementary school teacher who voted in the middle-class neighborhood of Saburtalo, praised Mr. Margvelashvili as education minister for making schoolbooks free for children. “He has a clean slate, has never played political games,” Ms. Gamcemligze said. “He does not have the attitude of someone who is power hungry.”

Giorgi Kipiani, 51, a small-business owner who came to vote pushing his 6-month-old grandson, also Giorgi, in a stroller, said that he was comfortable with Mr. Ivanishvili stepping down. “He doesn’t give up that he is responsible,” Mr. Kipiani said, adding that if one had as much money as Mr. Ivanishvili, “Would you really want to stay in the Georgian government?”

Election officials said that turnout was relatively low, 46.6 percent, compared with 61 percent in parliamentary balloting a year ago, but several voters praised the atmosphere of tranquillity. That was a marked departure from last year, when many predicted that the parliamentary elections would end with violent protests or even a civil war.

Merab Koiava, 80, a retired geologist in a state agency, voted for Mr. Bakradze even as he lamented the way that Mr. Saakashvili’s tenure had ended on sour notes. “In the beginning he was so great.” Mr. Koiava said. “I have no idea why he started to make mistakes. Maybe it was the people who were around him.”

Like many Georgians, Mr. Koiava said Mr. Saakaskhvili deserved credit for transforming a country that was largely in political and economic chaos. “Georgia started looking like a state,” he said, “and this town started looking like a capital.”

Since losing power, numerous officials who served in Mr. Saakashvili’s administration have been arrested and charged with crimes. Critics of Mr. Ivanishvili say that the cases are nothing more than ruthless political retribution, while members of the current government say they are intended to hold former officials accountable for corruption and abuse of authority, and to answer demands by the public for justice.

Mr. Ivanishvili in a speech to supporters on Sunday said that the presidential election showed that Georgia had joined “European civilization.” An announcement about his successor as prime minister is expected this week. Speculation has focused on the minister of labor, health and social affairs, David Sergeenko, and the minister of interior affairs, Irakli Garibashvili, a close ally of Mr. Ivanishvili’s.

Maia Goksadze-Osmanagoglu, 33, who works for a cellphone company, said she voted for Mr. Bakradze because she wanted the president and prime minister to be members of different parties. “I want them to be under constant scrutiny,” she said, “because we know when it is only about one opinion, it leads to bad consequences.”

Correction: October 30, 2013

An article on Monday about the outcome of Georgia’s presidential election misspelled the surname of a retired geologist in a state agency who had voted for the candidate who came in second. The voter is Merab Koiava, not Koiva.

Olesya Vartanyan and M. J. del Valle contributed reporting.

A version of this article appears in print on October 28, 2013, on page A10 of the New York edition with the headline: Georgia Elects New President, but Real Power Will Rest With Next Premier. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe